Ruffians chasing folks away from downtown

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON JR., P-I COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, August 6, 2007

Photo: /

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

A security camera captures the June 1 beating of a man outside the Century Square building near Third Avenue and Pine Street by a group of youths. The man was hospitalized, then released. (SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT) less

A security camera captures the June 1 beating of a man outside the Century Square building near Third Avenue and Pine Street by a group of youths. The man was hospitalized, then released. (SEATTLE POLICE ... more

Photo: /

Ruffians chasing folks away from downtown

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

They are speaking out, offering stories about the thugs who haunt Third and Pine.

"Our anxiety and personal discomfort about the rough- and-ready downtown crowd has significantly increased," says Sandra Shields of Bainbridge Island, who contacted me the other day. "We're now avoiding that particular corner and nearby blocks. We're not shopping at some of our favorite shops. We save shopping for a 'Bellevue Day' or shop online."

Lisa, a Seattle P-I reader, mentioned being overcome with dread walking into her office in the Century Square building. "Every day I had to ask the various groups of teens to please move. They were defiant and acted as if I was on their turf," she wrote in an e-mail. "We should not have to fear walking our streets."

Mark Miller often sees brazen drug dealing from his office in the Melbourne Tower at Third Avenue and Pike Street. He calls the situation a "heads in the sand problem."

Here's something to unbury the heads: security photos of a vicious June beating at Third Avenue and Pine Street. The images, released by the Seattle Police Department on Friday, are from a security camera at the Century Square building and capture the pummeling of a man who picked up a purse near a bus stop June 1.

I wrote about this beating last week, saying it was another indication that something must be done about crime and vagrancy in the city's retail core. If New York can clean up Times Square, Seattle should be up to the task.

The victim of the beating told police he planned to hold up the purse to see if its owner was nearby. Instead, he became a punching bag.

One young man punched him more than 20 times, and can be seen throwing blows in the snapshot accompanying this column.

A woman in a green dress also cold-cocked the victim, with a right hook. A young man in a white and gray shirt threw haymakers that could have been lethal, police say. The victim was hospitalized, then released.

Yet for all the brazenness of this late-afternoon attack, none of the half dozen or so thugs was arrested. The investigation stalled -- crime and violence, unless it involves gunfire or death, wins out.

Consider Greg Stewart, a Seattle Metro rider who was waiting for a bus near Third and Pike last week. He saw a motorcycle officer cite someone for jaywalking. "I asked the policeman why he wasn't stopping the drug dealers instead. He said, 'It's not my job -- have a nice day.' "

That's apathy talking -- or frustration. Orboth. Whichever, tourists, merchants and shoppers have complained about bringing a scrub and shine to Third and Pine.

"It's discouraging to see it has been getting worse," says Kate Joncas, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, which represents more than 400 medium to large businesses in the heart of Seattle.

Let's face it -- this issue is a minefield.

Police face the challenge of separating law-abiding people who exercise a right to public assembly from folks up to no good. They must weigh questioning behavior against fears of allegations about profiling. Even when police do crack down, officers talk about the "toothpaste tube effect" -- you squeeze the problem at Third and Pine and it oozes elsewhere.

Some neighborhood critics say the mayor doesn't have a clue about what's going on, but his office says those critics are wrong. "There's obviously crime and concerns about crime there," says Greg Nickels' spokesman, Marty McOmber. "As for a solution, there isn't just one single answer."

Nickels proposed a park rangers plan with special patrols to issue citations. In theory, the rangers would have freed police to do beat work, but the City Council nixed the idea in last year's budget. Undaunted, the mayor is putting in action a plan to increase police presence in certain areas on certain shifts, such as on Friday or Saturday, when crowds and problems mushroom. This push also calls for officers to work the streets and get to know faces that might be trouble.

The mayor's office sums up the effort like this: "Faster, stronger, smarter policing."

But such words won't mean much if it's just talk. Right now, the action taking center stage downtown is a daily thug meet-and-greet, a problem made worse by summer's warm weather and young people with nothing to do.

When ruffians have shoppers hightailing it to the safety of Bellevue, or when local convention planners say out-of-town folks note the menace downtown, these are sure signs -- signs of a civic problem screaming out for a fix.